1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to padmounted switchgear cabinets and, more particularly, is concerned with a door retainer mechanism for latching automatically and retaining an access door on a padmounted switchgear cabinet in a desired opened position once the access door has been moved to such position and until the access door has been manually released from such position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One common electrical utility switch installation, generally known as a padmounted switchgear, typically employs a cabinet having a housing and a pair of front access doors hinged at their outer vertical edges to the housing for undergoing pivotal movement between closed and opened positions. In closed positions, the access doors are disposed in a flush relationship with the front of the housing, extending across an access opening defined therein. In opened positions, the access doors are each disposed in opposite angular relationships with the front of the housing, extending away from the housing front.
Whenever an access door to a padmounted switchgear cabinet is opened, it is important that it be secured in the opened position so that it cannot close unexpectedly on a worker. Without some means of securing the door in the opened position, wind or other activity adjacent to the installation could cause the access door to close unexpectedly and inadvertently, resulting in possible injury to an unsuspecting worker caught in the path of the moving access door.
Conventional practice in the padmounted switchgear field is to secure the access door in the opened position by a worker using some form of manually operated retaining mechanism, usually a rod mounted on the rim of the cabinet housing and manually inserted into a receiving hole on the open access door. However, the effectiveness of this manually operated retaining mechanism is completely dependent on the worker connecting up the retaining mechanism after opening the access door. Thus, this approach is by no means fail safe in the sense that it depends upon the worker to implement its retaining function. There are automatic door retainers on the market that exist for various other applications, however, these are not suitable for switchgear applications because for such applications the retainer needs to be compact in size and that at no point during opening or closing may any part of the retainer enter the interior of the enclosure.
Consequently, a need exists for a design of an automatic door retainer mechanism which is compact in size, does not enter the enclosure during opening and closing, and which will function without any action being required by a worker to implement its retaining function other than merely opening the access door.